Help Running (Part II)
Galatians 5:7-12

To finish well, we must run well. Running well doesn’t happen by accident, but deliberately includes the following:

1. Pursue the truth (5:7)
2. Remember Who called whom (5:8)
3. Beware treacherous influences (5:9)
4. Trust God’s working (5:10)
5. Keep the Cross in focus (5:11)
6. Take drastic action (5:12)

We began something a week ago in Galatians 5 having to do with running the race, an analogy that the apostle uses in more than one place to describe the Christian life. In 1976, I was one of  possibly 1200 people, who ran in the first Bloomsday Run in Spokane.

In the kingdom of Greece, around 490 B.C.,  where because of communications needs and so forth, there were individuals who were professional runners. They were enlisted by the government and other agencies to carry messages as quickly as they could in order to enhance whatever enterprise was at stake.

Around that time, on the western coast of Greece, the Persian army had fought a major battle with the Greek forces threatening the entire land. The Greeks prevailed over the Persians. It was very important that the people in Athens, further inland, would learn that the Greeks had prevailed so that they did not surrender their city to the Persian Navy that was threatening them.

A runner named Pheidippides was enlisted and sent to Athens. He had already run about 100 miles that day, having carried another message to another place. They enlisted him to run to Athens from the battlefield on the coast with the message, “We have prevailed. Don’t surrender the city.”

Even though he was very tired, taxed beyond what he felt might be his ability, he arose to the challenge. He took the message and started on the road to Athens, several hours distant. He kept telling himself along the way that although he was tired and weary and although his legs and feet seemed to get heavier and heavier with every step the closer he got, “I must get to Athens. I must deliver the message or the war could be lost.”

With his final steps he reached Athens. He made it to the city square and literally with his dying breath, Pheidippides gasped, “Rejoice, we conquered.” The city and the nation were spared. That run is celebrated throughout our world down to this day. He ran from Marathon to Athens, a distance of over 25 miles, from which we today get our term the marathon run. He did some things right and he succeeded and carried the day.

The apostle in his day certainly would have picked up on that imagery of running. We know something about it too. We’ll read Galatians 5:7-12 and then discuss three more principles or practices or disciplines or dare we say, habits, that we might cultivate if we’re going to run well. The apostle says to the churches in Galatia:

Galatians 5
⁷ You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?
⁸ This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you.
⁹ A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.
¹⁰ I have confidence in you in the Lord that you will adopt no other view; but the one who is disturbing you will bear his judgment, whoever he is.
¹¹ But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished.
¹² I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.

“You were running well. What happened?” We left off with verses 7-9 a week ago and I’ll just give the principles by way of review:

1. Pursue the truth (5:7)

Keep your eyes on the prize, keep your finger in the Book, and keep your beautiful feet in the muddy street. Keep in the game; keep in the work. Don’t be a rear-echelon bureaucrat; be a front line trooper.

2. Remember Who called whom (5:8)

Remember this is not all about me and my being happy. This is all about God. His investment in me is worth my life. It’s about His glory, His honor, His will, His kingdom. He called me. He is most important. We need to remember that.

3. Beware treacherous influences (5:9)

That would be leaven. A little leaven will mess up everything. Leaven, biblically, being wrong behavior that just seems to spread. Wrong teaching that does as well. Both wrong behavior and wrong teaching every time, it seems, appeal to the flesh, which could explain why it spreads so easily.

4. Trust God’s working (5:10)

Trust ultimately in His working. He is the one who said, “I will build My church. I will take care of My agenda.” Trust in what He is going to do. In verse 10, the apostle says to the folks in Galatia, “Now I myself have a subtle confidence towards you.” Not in you, toward you. My confidence isn’t in you people; my confidence is in the Lord with you in mind. He says, “I don’t believe you will adopt any other view, but the one who is disturbing you, he will be taken care of by God. He will bear God’s judgment, it doesn’t matter who he is.

Paul’s confidence toward them is in the Lord. It is a settled confidence, the word he uses deliberately. How can he have such settled confidence? Because he sees himself as a piece of work, as a trophy of God’s grace. He remembers where he came from and how the Lord got hold of him and how the Lord has been changing his life. This is what God does. So Paul is saying, “I will trust Him.”

I read an account not long ago of the Viet Nam-era training of the Navy SEAL team. They have a particular experience in their training in San Diego that they call Hell Week. During that particular period of 5 days, the men are allowed no sleep. They are continually in motion, exercising, and on about the fourth day in the evening, the account said that the instructors who were spelling each other, keeping these guys constantly moving, had them take their blankets out of their barracks, bring them out on the football field, and spread them out and lie down on them and stare at the sky while classical music was being played over the loudspeakers. The challenge – “Don’t you dare fall asleep.”

On the surface the candidates are thinking, “This is insane. This is crazy. I can’t understand why I’m going through this. Why I must endure this silly training.” The point was, and they realized this, the individuals responsible for their training had been Special Forces in Viet Nam. They knew what these trainees would encounter. They knew what they would have to endure. Their confidence was not in their circumstances; it was in those who had already been there, who knew how to train them, who knew what to expect, who knew what surely awaited them. They knew what was coming.

That’s what Paul is saying here. “Your trust has to be in what God is doing in His big program, not necessarily in the sense you make of it at any given time. In various churches in the New Testament era and in our day, different disturbances enter in from time to time.

There was a case in the church of Thessalonica. Let me read from II Thessalonians 3 about another disturbance in another church. The Galatian churches were in what is today central Turkey. This particular church, Thessalonica, was in Greece across the Aegean Sea, yet other problems happened. In this particular case Paul writes to them:

II Thessalonians 3:4-5
⁴We have confidence in the Lord concerning you, that you are doing and will continue to do what we command.

 ⁵May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ.

You must trust God’s working. People had come in among them and had sought to convince the local Christians there that Jesus had already returned and they had missed it, that they had been left out, that those who had died would have no hope, and that somehow they had missed a major step in the overarching program of God. They were shook up by this and got hold of the apostle. He got back to them saying, “Wait a minute. Don’t trust in what you’re hearing. Don’t trust in your circumstances. Place your trust in God, who is the one who established the big program anyway. Trust in the Lord, don’t trust in other people’s strengths. Don’t trust in your own. “

In verse 10 he says, I have confidence in you in the Lord that you will adopt no other view; but the one who is disturbing you will bear his judgment, whoever he is.

We have two things going on in this verse. You are trying to trust God and walk on. Another individual or individuals are trying to mess things up. For your part, Paul says, you must trust in God’s finishing work. He’s going to lay hold of you and He’s going to take you through to completion. Regarding those who are giving you trouble, trust God’s judging work. He will take care of them.

It’s interesting how John the Baptist, when he preached to the Pharisees and the Sadducees who came to him for baptism prior to the ministry of Jesus, in Matthew 3 says, “This kingdom I’m announcing is going to be carried through to its fruition by the Messiah of whom I am forerunner. He’ll come. He’s mightier than I am. As a matter of fact, John said, He’ll take the wheat and put it in the bin and He’ll take the chaff and put it in the fire. He will bring through to completion those who are His, and to judgment those who are not. Trust in His process.

Let me illustrate it this way. In Romans 14, the church in Rome is made up of both Jews and Gentiles. They were an interesting mix so they came at their faith a little bit differently. There were those who were used to coming from a faith that had a lot of rules attached, the Jews. They weren’t sure they trusted the Gentiles who didn’t understand all their rules.

Understandably in the church itself there was some conflict. There were some issues going on and the apostle encouraged the people to keep their eyes on Jesus, not to keep your eyes on one another. Certainly don’t condemn one another. He says this in Romans 14:

¹Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.
 ² One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only.
 ³The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him.
 ⁴Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

“What about me, Lord. I may be a little confused. I may get off the track. I may not understand all this stuff.” God says, “Trust me.”

Stand he will, Paul says, because the Lord is able to stand him up. That’s God’s work. What about the other guy?

Romans 14

¹⁰But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.
¹¹For it is written,
 "AS I LIVE, SAYS THE LORD, EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW TO ME,
 AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL GIVE PRAISE TO GOD."
¹²So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.

There is a finishing work God does, and a judging work God does and it’s His to do. Paul encourages us here to trust His working. If we seem to be derailed, if we seem to be distracted, get back to who God is, get back to what God wants, and trust Him above all else.

5. Keep the Cross in focus (5:11)

To my mind these principles and these verses just lend themselves one to the other. One seems to prepare for the next. Verse 11 says, But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished.

If nothing else, Paul says, never ever forget the cross. The Judaisers, those who would try to corrupt the people in Galatia, would use Paul as a point of distraction. They would say things like, “Why would you listen to him? After all, he’s the best Jew that ever was and he has the papers to prove it.” Circumcised the eighth day, as to the Law a Pharisee, of the tribe of Benjamin, and so forth -- just a phenomenal Jew. Surely he can’t be discouraging circumcision, can he?

Not only that, but Paul had befriended and mentored the young man, Timothy. Timothy was a Greek and so to avoid problems with Timothy in Jerusalem, Paul authorized Timothy’s circumcision. So we can hear these Judaisers in Galatia saying, “This Paul, he’s not being consistent with you here. He’s not telling you the whole truth. He’s saying one thing and doing another.”

Paul is responding in verse 11 to that criticism. He’s saying, “If I’m still preaching circumcision, why don’t they leave me alone? Because that would put me in their camp, but they’re always on my case. He says, “I’m not preaching circumcision because if I preached that you had to work your way to heaven in any way, then what does that do to the cross of Christ? He said that would be totally out of keeping with what the cross is all about.

This is so important for you and me. Christian people focus on the message over the messenger. Not to the exclusion of the messenger. The messenger is important and we are called to be apt messengers of the gospel. But far more important than the messenger is the message, that it must be true. Let me remind you of a couple verses from the first chapter of Galatians.

Galatians 1:8

  ⁸But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!

The message trumps the messenger.   He goes on:

 ⁹As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!

The cross is everything and Paul knows it. The critical position of the cross and how important it is that it remain our focus. In Corinth, one of the problems going on in that church was people saying, “I think I’ll follow Paul.” Others were saying, “I think I’ll follow Peter.” Others were saying, “I like Apollos.” Some said, “I think I’ll stick with Jesus.” Through the course of his argument in I Corinthians, Paul is saying the messenger is not the main thing.

I Corinthians 1

¹⁸For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
¹⁹For it is written,
"I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE,
 AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE."
 ²⁰ Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

In other words, what sense can this world make of an instrument of death such as the cross? It only makes sense in light of God’s payment for our sin.

²¹For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

Jews want signs, Greeks want wisdom, we give you Christ crucified. What He did on the cross is what matters.

The message is paramount over the messenger. I illustrate. What’s more important, the donkey or what the donkey said to Balaam? Jesus in his triumphal entry was told by the Pharisees to rebuke his disciples. Jesus said, “If I rebuke them, the stones will cry out.” The message is what is important.

In Philippians, the first chapter, Paul describes the fact that he is in Roman prison while he writes the letter. He’s saying there is some good news about being in prison. Don’t worry about me because I’m in prison. God is opening some doors here He wouldn’t otherwise open. For instance, he said, there are some believers here who are now being emboldened to speak the truth because of my chains. I’ve been an encouragement to them. The message is getting out to the whole Praetorian Guard. By the way, that’s probably how it got to England before the first missionaries ever got there – through the Praetorian Guard of the Roman army.

Paul said this in verse 14:

Philippians 1
¹⁴and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear.
¹⁵ Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will;
¹⁶the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel; ¹⁷the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment.

He says, “Do I care?” No, because the message is more important than the messenger.

¹⁸What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice.

Keep the cross in focus.

I reflect on my Christian life. I became a Christian when I was 19 years old, in the Navy. There were two individuals who God used to influence me toward the faith, one of whom challenged me with the four spiritual laws and said you really need to pray that prayer, encouraged me to pray that prayer, and was sort of a cheerleader for me in my early Christian days.

The second individual was a man I knew in the Navy. He was my closest friend. We did everything together because we were the only two Christians we knew. We visited missionaries together and did Bible study together, did all kinds of things together. Both of those individuals, tragically, today are not interested in the gospel of Jesus. Does that change the truth they once shared? No! As important as the messenger is, the message is most important. Keep the cross of Jesus always in focus because the message never changes. People might, and often do.

The truth of the gospel, the beauty of the good news will never change because the God of the good news will never change. That is wonderful. Keep the cross in focus.

6. Take drastic action (5:12)

Finally, be prepared to take drastic action. At this verse we smile because it’s somewhat suggestive. I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves. That sounds kind of hard-lined. There are two different ways of looking at this, two legitimate options allowable by language and culture where this verse might best be understood.

Many people feel that the apostle here is being cynical and bordering on sarcastic and saying, “If they’re that worked up about circumcision, why don’t they just keep on cutting and mutilate themselves?” That’s not totally unfounded because mutilating themselves would separate them symbolically from the people of God according to Deuteronomy 23:1. With their Jewish background they were not be permitted certain privileges in the community of faith if they were so mutilated.

So it could be that the apostle Paul here is saying. By the way, he is using the words here, “unattainable wish,” saying, “If it were possible, it’s not, but if it were, this is what I would want – that they just mutilate themselves, thus severing themselves from the community of faith altogether. Just so they’re done. We’re done with them.”

It would be as if someone were causing trouble, say, over the issue of baptism. It would be like saying, “Oh, why don’t they just stay under.”

Or perhaps the issue would be communion and we might say in the same spirit, “I wish they’d choke on it.” That’s the one option. There’s another. I like the second one because it’s nicer. The verse literally says, those who are troubling you, I could wish that they would remove themselves or cut themselves off. Put simply, that would mean if they would just move away. They would just leave, distance themselves from the people whom they are troubling.

Either option is allowable, but either way sometimes in the kingdom of God, drastic action is necessary. Jesus said that in the ninth chapter of Mark. We have a problem with drastic action as westerners, as Americans, as people in a fairly affluent and fairly sheltered culture. We like things to be a little more gradual, a little softer, a little subtler. Drastic action to us is something we often will resist right down to the very end. Yet with so many people who have made milestones in faith, it’s because they’ve come to the point where they’ve simply had to take drastic action.

The apostle is just digressing a second when he’s talking in I Corinthians 9 about running the race. He says so run that you may win an eternal prize. Then he jumps into the imagery of the boxing ring when he says, “I buffet my body and I keep under myself so that when all is said and done I may not find out I was a castaway. He uses an expression there, “I buffet my body.” It’s the expression that in today’s boxing parlance represents the knockout uppercut. He says, “I smack myself down. I deliver to myself the uppercut, knockout punch.” That is not gentle therapy; that’s drastic action. He says, “Why? Because there is so much as stake.”

There’s a lot at stake. The gospel holds hope for this life and for the next. Jesus made the claim Himself, “There is no other way.” There is so much at stake occasionally drastic action is necessary.

Speaking of drastic action, Jesus said. “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble (Mark 9:42) it would be better for him if with a heavy millstone hung around his neck he’d been cast into the sea.” A heavy millstone is huge, hockey puck- looking things, several feet in diameter and maybe a foot thick with a hole in the middle like a lifesaver. But they wouldn’t be much of a lifesaver if it’s strapped on a person’s neck and he’s thrown into a lake. He’s saying you’re better off dead, if in fact you’re going to mess up the spiritual life of someone who is coming to faith.

That’s hard line talk. What he is saying certainly is you’re better off in the judgment just to have died with your current accumulation of sins rather than compound them by leading more people astray than you already have.

It’s serious stuff! Not subtle. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. He says it’s better for you to enter life crippled than having two hands to go into hell into the unquenchable fire. If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than having your two feet to be cast into hell. If your eye causes you to stumble, cast it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell.

We understand Jesus’ use of idiom, hyperbole, and exaggeration for effect. We know it can’t be done consistently this way, because how are you going to cut the other hand off now that you’ve cut off the first one? Once you’ve gotten rid of both eyes, what do you do with the library of the mind? What he is saying is, take drastic action to avoid undermining the message of the cross, certainly to avoid leading astray someone who is trying to make their way closer to the Lord.

Either way, that is drastic action. We have to make real, tough choices sometimes to get either closer to God or away from harm. Tough choices. Hard stuff.

I was talking, not long ago, to a friend whose daughter pleased him immensely. She had been struggling. She had been coming under the bad influence of another friend and this friend was instrumental in helping her get into all kinds of trouble. His daughter received a phone call from this gal wanting her to go do something and he was so proud to hear her say, “Don’t call me any more. I can’t be your friend anymore until you decide that the Lord is going to be first in your life. You are doing me no good.”

She made a tough call. She took drastic action. Whether it is an issue that has to do with another person or with a besetting sin or a problem in our own lives, so very frequently distance, literal distance, is the solution. Away from the source of temptation, distance away from another person. Sometimes we need to close the distance between ourselves and someone who will do us good instead of holding someone at arm’s length who really would be a good influence or a place or an appointment or an event that we know would be good, close the distance, increase the distance from harm.

He’s saying that drastic action sometimes is what it takes, probably more often than we know.

Allowing matters to continue as is, is not an option. The apostle is hitting hard. What he is doing is turning a corner in the book of Galatians and with the very next verse he’s going to begin to introduce what it is to walk in the freedom of the gospel, what it is to live the true Christian life. Prior to that, he’s saying, you’ve got to make some decisions. You have to understand that this isn’t going to be business as usual. It’s going to be a wonderful life, but it’s a life that will require focus, determination, and accountability to go with the joy.